Boudin vows to transform criminal justice in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO —Chesa Boudin, the left-wing insurgent candidate declared the winner of a hotly-contested race to become San Francisco County’s district attorney, will face a host of challenges when he takes office.

Boudin is the latest candidate across the nation to win a district attorney’s race not by pledging tough-on-crime policies, but rather to reforming an office critics say incarcerates too many people and turns a blind eye to abuses by police officers.

Boudin, who has never been a prosecutor, won in the traditionally-liberal city despite a wave of attack mailers and negative advertisements financed by the San Francisco Police Officers Association and other police unions across the nation. Roughly $700,000 was spent by the police unions criticizing the deputy public defender’s “radical” policies.

But Boudin won the race by running up a healthy margin of first-place votes and then holding off voters who preferred prosecutors in the city’s ranked voting system. He defeated second-place finisher Suzanne T. “Suzy” Loftus, who had been appointed as interim district attorney after the resignation of George Gascon last month, by 2,825 votes.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed appointed Loftus as interim district attorney after Gascon resigned, and Loftus had the backing of establishment Democrats.

Boudin could not be reached Monday. But in a statement after declaring victory this weekend, he wrote: “In voting for this campaign, the residents of San Francisco have demanded transformational change and rejected calls to go back to the tough-on-crime era that did not make us safer and destroyed the lives of thousands of San Franciscans.”

His background is unique and Boudin highlighted it during the campaign. His parents were members of the left-wing radical group the Weather Underground. When he was a toddler they dropped him off with a babysitter and acted as getaway drivers in the 1981 robbery of a Brink’s truck that ended with the death of two New York police officers and a security guard.

His mother served 22 years in prison. His father remains behind bars.

“My earliest memories are visits to my parents in prison just to give them a hug,” Boudin said in a campaign video he repeated in forums. “Years of walking through steel gates taught me how profoundly broken our criminal justice system is.”

Boudin vowed to close one of the county’s jails and use the money to expand mental health diversion programs. He said the office’s prosecutorial decisions would be “race-blind,” and reviewed and confirmed by overseeing prosecutors. He pledged not to add gang enhancements to felonies because he says they are racist, according to his campaign website.

He vowed to eliminate money bail, a practice he fought against in the public defender’s office, and said he would seek reduced sentences in many cases.

The police union advertising against Boudin angered his supporters. At his Election Night party, when Boudin still trailed, San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer led a “F... the POA” chant.

Police union president Tony Montoya said Boudin’s supporters should get used to the criticism. “We felt an obligation to explain the dangerous impacts of the flowery language he chose to use throughout the campaign,” he said in a statement Monday.

Aside from the bad feelings and strong policy differences, Boudin also faces a different challenge: the exodus of dozens of experienced prosecutors from the district attorney’s office during the past couple of years. Some Hall of Justice insiders predict more defections in the wake of his victory.

UC Hastings College of the Law professor Rory K. Little, who is teaching at Yale Law School this fall, described Boudin as “a very smart guy [who] understands the complexities of the problems.”

Citing the recent elections of progressive candidates for district attorney in Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, Little said Boudin is “connected with those people” and is “part of a new wave that is going to be trying new things.”

While some prosecutors may leave, either because of San Francisco’s high cost of living or disagreements over policy, Little said Boudin will attract talented newcomers who want to make sweeping changes in the criminal justice system.

Little compared Boudin favorably to former San Francisco District Attorney Terrence T. Hallinan, another progressive who won office but struggled with managing the DA’s office and lost to now-Sen. Kamala Harris. “Hallinan was a terrible manager of people,” he said.